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Martin Feldstein looks at Bowles-Simpson Deficit Commission proposals and says the deficit reduction does not come soon enough. He points out that the Bowles-Simpson proposals still leave the national debt in 2020 at the level it is today- at 60% of GDP, and not reach the level of 40% of GDP that we had 2 years ago till 2035. The mere prospect of persistently high deficits, he says, jeopardizes the recovery by creating the expectation that tax and interest rates will eventually rise substantially. He says the Bowles-Simpson spending reductions by reforming the tax code that subsidizes mortgage payments, local government spending, health insurance and other items at an annual cost of $1 trillion, are the best approach. He differs with Bowles-Simpson in how this money would be used. Whereas Bowles-Simpson would use it to lower tax rates, leaving only $80 billion a year for deficit reduction, Feldstein would finance major deficit reductions. Feldstein recommends additional universal savings accounts to supplement Social Security. And he supports the Bowles-Simpson proposal for limiting the growth of government health-care spending to 1% more than the growth of GDP. He says the President needs to scale back the tax and spending proposals in the budget presented in the early part of 2010....

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Hamdi Ulukaya on how he started the Chobani brand of yogurt and the company from an idea and a postcard about a Kraft yogurt plant put up for sale in Columbus, New York. Here Hamdi is interviewed by the WSJ's Sarah Needleman. He describes how he developed the recipe with a master yogurt maker from his home country of Turkey, knowing that he had only one shot to get it right. That included pricing because Greek yogurt is costlier to make. The idea came from the postcard which made Hamdi think about the fact that always astonished him- that there was no quality yogurt in the U.S. He hired five people in the plant, had the walls painted, and the master yogurt maker as the sixth employee. The yogurt was introduced in 2007. The pricing had to be right- costing betwen $1.00 and $1.30, not too high. He decided on giving out free samples to get people introduced to the product and had a sampling truck go around the country, similiar to what Ben & Jerry's did with their ice cream in the early days. To avoid costly ad campaigns Chobani was introduced using bloggers, Facebook and Twitter to reach consumers directly....

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Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, accepts EU and IMF aid for recapitalizing Spain's banks. Rajoy tells a news conference in Spain on June 10th, 2012, "nobody pressured me," he did this because it would "help the credibility of the European project." The Partido Popular took decisive steps to improve Spain's competitiveness during the first 6 months of the new administration, but was caught by surprise by the problems in Bankia, a bank put together from failing cajas savings banks. The cajas savings banks were heavily involved in the housing bubble in Spain.

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Norbert Reithofer initiated changes at BMW when he took over as CEO in 2007. He reduced costs and improved margins at BMW. BMW has also benefitted from increasing demand for premium and luxury cars in 2010-2012.

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Efforts to impeach two previous presidents including Democrat Clinton failed in the Senate where the vote requires a two thirds majority. The first impeachment vote against Mr. Trump failed in the Senate. In the House of Representatives only a simple majority is required. Majority Leader McConnell says he will not reconvene the Senate before president Biden takes office. Vice President Pence has refused to invoke the 25th Amendment. House Democrats have moved ahead to vote for impeachment of president Trump for the storming of the Capitol offices in Washington D.C. Their impeachment statement says president Trump's remarks that his supporters had to fight like hell or they would not have a country, constituted incitement of supporters. President Trump won 74 million votes in the last election more than in the 2016 election and lost with Mr. Biden winning 81 million votes after polarization of the country. With such a large portion of the country voting for Mr. Trump Mr. Biden risks his agenda of fighting the pandemic, and other parts of his program, becoming immersed in partisan infighting. This would also result in continuing the division of the country, and continue polarization.  About 5 House Republicans are expected to support impeachment. In the Senate some Republicans say there are impeachable offenses yet only Mr. McConnell and the senator from Utah, Mr. Mitt Romney, favor impeachment.  Mr. Trump's style of governing was controversial from the beginning of his campaign in 2016, strident and taking on critics. He governed through relative moderation compared to his aggressive posture towards critics. For instance on Mexico his remarks offended critics, yet he negotiated a new trade agreement with Mexico replacing NAFTA to ensure worker protections in Mexico, and worker jobs and wages in the U.S. Negotiations with China on trade were conducted by a seasoned veteran, Mr Lighthizer,  who was deputy Trade Representative under Reagan, and negotiated the trade agreement with Japan that worked to reduce Japanese trade surplus in the eighties. On the economy before the pandemic hit in March president Trump made significant progress reducing unemployment.      ...

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At this point in May (May 22, 2026) a glimmer of hope appears for settling both the crisis in Hormuz and the Ukraine war. Pakistan, Turkey and China following DJT visit to China may be pushing Iran to lower the scale of the conflict. China's first priority was to be accepted by the US at the Beijing meeting as an equal power with the US, and keen to show its willingness to bear responsibility for peaceful resolution in conflict zones as a sign of its maturity as a world power. Much of this is not shown in the media as it is mostly done behind the scenes in communications that the media knows nothing about. Note that even in the depths of the Cold War during the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and Soviet action in Budapest, the US and the Soviets when their economies were not intertwined as the US and China are today, were still talking to each other to limit the conflicts to low level conflict. Hong Kong takeover, China's actions near Taiwan, China's presence in Latin America, Chinese cooperation with Iran, and Russia on Ukraine, China's economic competition in rare earths, are relatively smaller levels of friction considering 1950's Soviet's and the US. At the same time China and the Us are aware of a new bloc emerging in Oslo in May, where India is merging its economy with the Nordic economies of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and of the European Union and Germany, creating a new bloc of 2 billion people that can only grow rapidly with India's potential to exceed growth rates of 20% in the 600 million Eastern region for a decade. EU would make the shift to strategic partnership with India displacing the vital role the European Union has played in China's growth and economy. This would create new pressures for Russian president Putin to decide it is time to listen to a friend India and de-escalate lower the level of conflict with an initial peace deal that would lead to more talks on a final settlement. Because Russia would have a harder time tackling both India and Germany at the same time. NYT shows on the same day May 22 a report on Russia and a report by the Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Sonegard that say the elites in Russia and Putin were by January 2026 having very serious discussion to change the administration, bring Igor Sechin as negotiaor to end the Ukraine conflict before serious, possibly irreversible damage, to the Russian economy. Sweden's Sonegard says that between 2020 and 2024 Russian economy declined by 8%, not grew by 13% as official figures show, inflation is much higher than 5% as official figures show, and credit is tightening, bankruptcies expected, growth even with oil prices up down to 0.4% for 2026. During 20 years running Russia Putin's No. 1 priority, his life's mission was to restore, then exceed by a large margin the living standards of the Russian people. Having at such great cost accomplished the goal of gaining recognition as a Northern Power in Europe, having gained much of Russian speaking eastern Ukraine, Putin could wisely with self respect wind down Ukraine conflict for good. The US gains something similar to Northern Power status for Russia in its recommitment to the Monroe Doctrine, with Russia withdrawing from any involvement- and China tacitly doing the same-  in the western hemisphere. With that the US can tackle its own losses that match Russian losses in lives- loss of more American lives than in the Korean and Vietnam and WWI combined to drug smuggling from Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and restoring rule of law in Cuba, Venezuela, and through drug cartel free Mexico good governance in Mexico.  ...

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Prof. Leverett of Penn State University says the student protests at the time of the Shiite holy day day of Ashura, after the death of Grand Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, do not represent the majority. He says it is unikely that there will be much change in the Iranian government and President Obama should work with the existing Iranian government. He goes on to say that vastly larger number of Iranians went to the streets on December 30, in demonstrations organized to support the current Islamic Republic government, even saying that these demonstrations could have numbered nearly 1 million people. As the Iranian student protests have generated much media interest and were covered widely, this article presents an entirely different picture of the situation. The question remains to what extent does student protests reflect wider sentiment throughout the country, and if Leverett is right why did the party represented by Ahmadinejad need to win the presidential election by practices that were questioned by the opposition and others. Or is there an urban-rural divide in Iranian politics where most of the urban and literate classes have turned against the government and support student protest and seek change, whereas the rural areas support the current government. ...

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The US view of the response by India to a terrorist attack in Phalgam, Kashmir, Indian Union territory with strikes on terrorist camps. J.D. Vance US vice president says- “Our hope here is that India responds to this terrorist attack in a way that doesn’t lead to a broader regional conflict.” “And we hope, frankly, that Pakistan to the extent that they’re responsible, cooperates with India to make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their territory are hunted down and dealt with.” Vance was forced to cut short his visit to India after visiting Jaipur, Rajasthan in India when the terrorists with a history of aid from Pakistan killed 31 tourists in Phalgam, Kashmir. A long history of terrorist or militia trained in Pakistan has led to  terrorist incidents all over the world for the last three decades including the Kashmir and Afghanistan conflicts, the last having drawn Russia and the US into long wars which depleted their resources and led to loss of many lives. Yet much of the media remains oblivious of this in the US and Europe, and how it has led to the rise of China using this period of conflict under Bush and Obama since 2000, and the access to US, EU technologies and assistance. ...

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Prof. Lasson of the law school at the University of Maryland, teaches civil liberties. He provides perspective on the situation in Baltimore by giving a brief history of the city, and going over the history of Catholics, Jews and black people in the city as they struggled to assert their rights. Thurgood Marshall did not apply to the University's law school because he feared he would not be accepted. He went on to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. The 1857 Dred Scott decision before the Civil War was written by Roger Tany, who was from Baltimore. Maryland was a slave state before 1865. The law library at the law school of the University of Maryland now has Marshall's name.

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Only a fifth of parents in Britain understand the importance of childhood development between the ages one year to five years, even though most parents understand the importance of early childhood development. The Duchess of Cambridge says the early years are vital for a child's development and helps determine who he or she becomes as children grow up. The Duchess says " Our experiences in early childhood fundamentally impact our whole life and set the foundation for how we go on to thrive as individuals, with one another, as a community and as a society." She added "Every member of society can play a key role, whether that is directly with a child or by investing in the adults around them- the parents, the carers, the early years workforce and more."

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Discussion with Doug Parker of how he is thinking of pulling off the second large merger in a short period of time, America West, US Airways, and now Delta possibly. What they learnt from their previous experience and what they are planning to do with the new merger, difficulties ahead and how they hope to accomplish this. The experience of US Airways employees with prior managements is telling. Parker realized this when he talked to employees and learned many things that would keep them motivated, instead of being cynical and skeptical. But it still comes too soon to have a second merger, when the first one is still far from having addressed all problems.

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The arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in Cambridge Massachusetts at his own home. Putting Henry Gates in handcuffs after he apparently lost his temper when being questioned. He was threatened with arrest and shown handcuffs.

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Google's Schmidt on the future for Android phones and the competition with Apple. He sees the future in open Web applications and open applications like the Android, compared to the the Apple model, which he describes as closed.

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Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's prime minister for 31 years since 1959, and Senior Minister since then, has finally resigned. He is 87. The party he founded, the PAP, won only 60% of the vote in the recent elections.

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An Australian talks about working in different cultures. He describes overcoming fear after his first surfboard experience at the age of 7, to realize that he had the power to do meaningful things and make his own path.

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Scott Anderson of the NYT provides an indepth look at the Arab World and its fragmentation through the eyes of five people from each part of the Arab world- Egyptian, Kurd, Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian. He says the countries that fell apart are precisely the ones that were formed by the British and the French, and Italy, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire  using divide and rule policies- Britain in Iraq, France in Syria, and Italy in Libya- without much thought given to setting up viable nation states. This is why Iraq has a Sunni-Shia divide, Syria has similar divisions, and Libya with a largely tribal based structure, never really held together after the colonial powers left, and were held together only by strong dictators. Today's problems trace back to these historical events. This is complicated by the largely young demographic and restlessness of the people for change coupled with problems of underdevelopment in education, tribal loyalties, religious loyalties, and lack of political and social structures that could keep the countries together as change and transition to democratic processes took place. The role of the military further complicated matters in Egypt. Even Iran experienced these divisions because of the intervention of the great powers including Russia in Iran since 1900, leading to swings between liberal governments, foreign power supported governments, and a swing back to religious leadership as at present. This is one view of the region, others are presented by Ramadan (Oxford),  Bernard Lewis (Princeton), and leaders in Qatar and Emirates, other experts, some of whom point to the failure in leadership and the elites to find solutions to the problems of underdevelopment, in education, health, infrastructure, and aspirations for a voice in their governance. As the same divisions left by colonial powers affected Asia- in India, China, and Korea, but a larger vision of progress prevailed through crises and difficulties.        ...

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The idea of competitive cooperative federalism is for different states within India to compete for development projects through cooperation with the federal government and cooperation with other states. This is in the spirit of rapid development that India needs for modernization, facing the pandemic health challenges, and meeting the growing aspirations of the young people who make up most of India's population of 1.2 billion people. This is happening in Rajasthan with chief minister Ashok Ghelot's seeking the federal government's assistance in tackling the problem of shortage of doctors and medical supplies. Ghelot asked the federal government to make decisions for opening medical colleges in the remaining districts of Rajasthan and approve a medical device park in Jodhpur, a bulk drug park in Kota. A virtual program showed the foundation stone laying for medical colleges in Sirohi, Hanumangarh, and Daua districts. Mr. Modi's goal is to have a medical college for every district in the country and a medical postgraduate institution in each district. Mr. Modi said at that event- "I was listening to the CM of Rajasthan. He has given a long list of projects. His political ideology and party is different and mine is different, but he has much faith in me. This friendhship, trust and faith is a big strength of democracy." ...

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President Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed with near unanimous support by the U.S. Congress. The original U.S. law on Hong Kong passed in 1992 requiring yearly reports on the autonomy of Hong Kong for it to get the "special status" granted to it. This requirement for yearly reports expired in 2007. This requirement is now reinstated. The law signed by Mr. Trump requires the State Department to certify Hong Kong' autonomy annually. The WSJ describes it as a "grim trigger" strategy" which would cause damage to Hong Kong capital markets and is of a magnitude that makes it less likely to be used. Mr. Trump pointedly remarked that he had signed it "out of respect for Mr. Xi, China and Hong Kong," and Mr. Trump has shown respect so far for the protesters but also shown respect for Mr. Xi and China in the middle of the unending nature of the protests. The new Act does not give Mr. Trump any additional powers than he already has. It only changes one aspect of relations- it makes Hong Kong relative autonomy a part of permanent high level issues in China - U.S. relations, including trade and Hong Kong's status as financial center. ...

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Michael Shear of the NYT describes Biden's thinking about China and his candour during fund raising events for his campaign. Biden says he seeks "competition, not conflict with China." He tells an audience in Utah, "I don't want to hurt China, but I'm watching." Biden signed an executive order last week banning American investment in certain technology industries in China that could enhance its military capabilities. In relations with China Biden is moving forward with easing tensions by having Blinken, Kerry, Raimondo and other officials visit Beijing to ensure open communications and discussion. Biden seems to be following two tracks one of being open about China and the evolution of the relationship in erratic ways over different administrations where it was counterproductive for both nations- creating more potential for conflict than less when technology flowed freely from the US to China in business to business dealings- that did not reflect how the US sees both its responsibilities and its leadership in world affairs over the twenty first century. China has reverted to its political position in the postwar years as it adjusts to the new US perceptions of what happened to US jobs, manufacturing and trade over two decades since the opening to China at the WTO. ...

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Japan's Foreign Minister tells Martin Fackler of the NYT in an interview that the Abe government will follow previous governments in the postwar period that apologized for colonial policies that caused suffering in other parts of Asia. He repeatedly calls for Japanese to be humble about the past. Previous statements by persons seen to be close to the government, including the head of NHK broadcaster, were interpreted negatively in S. Korea, China and the U.S. as needlessly escalating tensions in the region. China and S. Korea responded with a public relations campaign of their own to present what happened in the prewar period. S. Korean president Park refused to meet Japan's premier Abe. Kishida used NYT and Fackler to send a message to a global audience about Japan taking a path of peace since 1945.

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Gikas Hardouvelis was finance minister during a crucial period of impementation of the 2012 bailout program for Greece from June 2013 to Jan. 2015. Here he outlines the mistakes he sees made by the IMF in not agreeing to the 7.2 billion payment to Greece in 2014, 4% of Greece GDP, with one third of that not a loan. At the fifth review of the 2012 bailout the EU commissioner for economic affiars, Pierre Muscovici , said Greece had completed its requirements and the 7.2 billion euro funding should be released. Yet he says the IMF to preserve leverage over a future Syriza administration in the 2015 elections decided to hold back. This made it harder for the Samaras administration to tell voters that it had completed the program a year earlier, and the lack of the funds hurt the Samaras administration as it erased signs of growth that had appeared in early 2014. Following this error he points to 4 mistakes made by the Syriza Tsipras government. The first was that it was bitterly opposed to the lenders (IMF, EU and ECB) and failed to focus on the economy. Hardouvelis points out that the maturity of the debt of 16.5 years and low interest rates meant that it was not the immediate issue facing Greece, and he calls it very manageable. This was not to say that it was important but with creditors worried about moral hazard, other issues could be taken up first. Another mistake was to allow a loss of liquidity to the private sector so that prospects of growth were erased. The new finance minister acted as if the $7.2 billion infusion was not important and let payments be delayed. Tsipras and Varoufakis let the uncertainty increase in the private sector, and let the economy decline all the way to the closing of the banks. How costly was this is evident from the IMF's own paper in Juy 2015 and the 3 page update of July 14, 2015, on the Greek debt, showing it cost Greece a total of 60 billion euros in additional financing needed and an additional 25 billion euros for the shock from the closing of the banking system. That 3 page IMF paper shows that within the space of one year a shocking amount of damage was done by Syriza left government- it says Greece went from being on track for reaching Debt to GDP of 105% by 2022 under the Samaras-Hardouvelis administration in July 2014, to 142% by June 2015, and with the closing of the banking system to 170% by July 2015. Some of this would have come from the IMF's own withholding of the 7.2 billion euro payment to the Samaras government. ...

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France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, has sounded a warning about a nuclear agreement with Iran in the past. In 2013 he warned the West not to get drawn into a "fools game." In an intervew with the WSJ on May 31, 2015, he says without proper verification which includes military sites a nuclear agreement with Iran is meaningless. He points to the dangers of other countries in the region saying the agreement lacks clout and opting for developing nuclear weapons.

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Charles Blow says blacks are suffering higher foreclosures, higher unemployment, and the quality of life for black people is collapsing, as President Obama is not listening or paying atttention to the pressing needs of black people. His point is that Obama needs white voters more than he needs black voters. He sees Obama more as a gamesman now than agamechanger for black people. And he talks about a backlash amng black people, as black people are getting disenchanted with Obama.

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Asli Aydintasbas's thoughts on President Obama's visit to Turkey. He is a Turkish journalist for the newspaper Sabah. He says something useful. In Turkey's eternal identity crisis where the thinking is going on only in terms of opposites, either you are secular or religious, Kurd or Turk, European or Middle Eastern. Obama's visit and his careful remarks point to a more abiding truth he says, that Turks should remind themselves that they are all of those things, and much more.

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George Osborne, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, says he supports giving regulators powers to take action to split banks that do not ring fence their risky operations and separate deposit taking from risk taking activities. He says this as parliament considers legislation on banking regulation after the LIBOR investigations and problems in British banking following the 2008 financial crisis. Osborne said: "Irresponsible behavior was rewarded, failure was bailed out, and the innocent- people who have nothing to do whatsoever with the banks- suffered." Referring to the larger role of the financial industry in the British economy, Osborne stated: "Our country has paid a higher price than any other major economy for what went so badly wrong in our banking system." This comes as Britain feels the impact of a decline in growth in 2013.